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Bill would boost VT transportation

Bernie Sanders and Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba walk to the elevator after a coffee sit-down at City Hall in Davenport, Iowa, on Friday morning, May 29, 2015.(Photo: EMILIE STIGLIANI/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

After initial plans for deep cuts in federal transportation spending, a bipartisan U.S. Senate panel on Friday approved a 7 percent boost in funding for roads and bridges.

The $278 billion transportation bill would give Vermont $1.3 billion over a period of six years, which also is a 7 percent increase. In 2015-2016, the state’s funding would increase from $196 million to $210 million.

As a member of the transportation subcommittee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., helped draft the legislation and was one of the 20-to-0 votes in favor of it in the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

“This bill is modest step forward in addressing roads and bridges, which will be an enormous help in Vermont, but we have got to do more to address our country’s failing infrastructure,” Sanders said in a phone interview with the Burlington Free Press.

The presidential hopeful said the nation’s spending on infrastructure lags behind that of Europe and China.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the nation would need to double its transportation spending to maintain infrastructure, Sander noted.

It’s unclear how the bill will fare on the Senate floor and in Congress.

The public works committee is made up of 11 Republicans and nine Democrats. That could be a good omen for the bill when it goes before the Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives, according to Sanders’ office.

The budget blueprint approved by the Republican-controlled Congress called for a 23 percent cut to transportation funding this year, and a 40 percent cut over 10 years, Sanders said.

The next hurdle is for the Senate Finance Committee to devise a financing plan for the bill.

Sue Minter, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said unstable transportation funding has curtailed the agency’s ability to plan for long-term transportation projects. The six-year funding plan would give more stability, Minter said.

“It is an enormous effect on the state of Vermont,” Minter said of the transportation bill. “We depend heavily on federal government for fixing roads and bridges.”

Minter said Sanders “played a critically important role in making sure Vermont fared well in that bill.”

About 30 percent of bridges in Vermont and many roads need maintenance work, Sanders said, citing the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.